A conventional internal combustion engine that has a variable valve operating mechanism (valve stop mechanism) that is capable of maintaining at least one of an intake valve and an exhaust valve in a closed state is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1. In this conventional internal combustion engine, a configuration is adopted so as to control the variable valve operating mechanism so as to place at least one of the exhaust valve and the intake valve in a closed state when a fuel-cut operation is performed in a situation in which the temperature of an exhaust purification catalyst that is arranged in an exhaust passage is equal to or greater than a predetermined temperature.
The applicants are aware of the following documents, which includes the above described document, as documents related to the present invention.